Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter Four - 2008
1st September.
"Who does picture day on the first day of school?"
"A lot of places do, Sam." Freddie glanced around the auditorium, taking in freshmen from all walks of life. Most of them, he imagined, are as terrified as him.
"But by the time the yearbook comes out you look totally different, like high school changes you or something." Carly said, hugging her books to her chest. "It's not gonna change us, though. Right, guys?"
"Ugh! I'm hungry!" Sam complained, ignoring Carly's question.
"When are you not?" Freddie snorted before opening his back pack and pulling out a Fat Cake. "Here."
"Thanks Nub," Sam says, snatching the fat cake from Freddie's hand.
Carly rolls her eyes at her friends. Somethings will never change. "So where are we meeting for lunch? I say whoevere gets to the cafeteria first saves a table."
"Whatever," Sam grunts . "As long as I gets me some food I don't care."
"You just ate a whole fat cake how can you possibly still be hungry?" Carly asked.
Sam shrugs at her friend. She had had this hungry feeling now for quite sometime. It had come around just after Carly had come back from cheerleading camp three summers ago and it had never really left. Sam hated remembering that day. It was the day Freddie had confessed his undying love for Carly. The mere thought made her want to vomit.
"Here," Freddie said ad he pulled another Fat Cake from the depths of his bag.
Sam snatched it from his hand once again, though this time she says nothing. She's too annoyed to be polite.
"You know most people are polite when someone gives them food," Freddie frowns.
"I ain't most people Fredlumps, now cram it," Sam says as she takes a large bite out of her fat cake.
Freddie opens his mouth to retort but Sam beats him to it by dumping her fat cake packaging down his pants and storming off out of the auditorium.
*********** 5th September *************
Sam and Freddie had not spoken in five days. Which for them felt like an eternity. Granted it was not as long as the time Sam had ignored him after his confession of love for Carly but for them five days was forever.
"Hey, you invited the doof," Sam said as she walked in carrying her skybucks coffee. She didn't even like coffee but she need something, anything to fill this empty hole inside of her.
"Sam..." Carly began.
"Aw, man! I didnt know that was gonna be here!" Freddie whined. Freddie was annoyed with Sam. She had ignored him for five days and hadn't even told him what he'd done that was so wrong. Part of him was happy Sam was here, he had hopd that maybe they could reconcile but the other part was still annoyed with her and was refusing to give in.
"She. I am a she, Freddie, as in girl," Sam said raising her voice slightly. Her rage was increasing more and more. She was so irked right now. How could he call her 'that'? They were best friends, and best friends didn't refer to each other as 'that'! What hurt more was that whilst he was pining away after Carly all she could do was sit and watch as she lost her best friend.
They carried on arguing until Sam said what she knew would hurt him most, "Ahem... Carly will never love you."
And as predicted she was right. "THAT'S IT! I'm takin' my stuff and goin' home!" Freddie exploded.
But Carly being Carly stepped up to bat and fixed the issue, "Please stay."
"Okay," Freddie said a goofy smile appearing on his lips.
That was it, 'please stay' and he stayed? What the heck was this kindergarten? No, it wasn't. Because in kindergarten Freddie was Sam's and Sam was Freddie's, there was no issue with sharing.
Sam thought she was going to throw up. She could feel her stomach twisting and turning into knots. Hopefully this would all be over soon.
******** 8th September ******
It had been one crazy couple of days. Sam had had barely any time to think. But now it was all over and she was sat laying on her bed looking up at the ceiling.
The web cast had gone great as had the after party.
She had replayed the webshow over again in her head. Though there was one part she kept coming back to.
"Okay, this first kid we're gonna show you can take a glass of milk..." Carly started enthusiams partically dripping from her voice.
"This is so deliciously gross..." Sam interuptted grinning manically.
"Snort the milk up into his nose..."
"It's the best thing ever!" Sam said jumping excitedly.
"And then make the milk squirt out of his eyes!"
"I wanna marry this boy!"
"I wanna marry this boy!""I wanna marry this boy!""I wanna marry this boy!""I wanna marry this boy!""I wanna marry this boy!""I wanna marry this boy!"
The words just kept repeating in her head. When she had said this on iCarly she had been lying of course.
Her Mom had commented on it when she had got home.
"I'm home!" Sam called as she closed the door behind her.
"In the kitchen!" Pam called back. "So I watched your webshow," Pam said as her daughter walked through the door and straight to the refridgerator.
"Cool. Watcha' think?" Sam asked as she pulled out a root beer.
"Pretty funny stuff kid. Can I ask you a question?"
"Thanks and technically didn't you just ask one?" Sam said smirking.
Pam rolled her eyes but continued, "So when you gonna marry milk boy and am I invited to the wedding?" Pam teased.
"MOM!" Sam whined. "There isn't gonna be a wedding. I don't wanna marry milk boy." She shuddered at the thought. Saying she wanted to marry him had been something they came up with for the show. It was nothing serious.
"Sure you don't you wannamarry someone else..."
"Well, yeah." Sam said taking as seat next to her mother at the kitchen table.
"I know who you wanna marry," Pam said in a sing-song voice.
"You do?" Sam said shocked. "I mean, uh... Well, if you do, then you wouldn't mind enlightening me on who this guy I wanna marry is. "
"It's Fredward Benson," Pam said simply.
"Uh No it isn't," Sam said in a 'duh' tone as she got up from the table.
"Yeah it is. You even planned your wedding together when you were little. Remember? You and Freddie spent the whole day planning it."
"No I don't remember," Sam lied. When in truth the memories of that day were flooding back to her.
Ugh! She did not want to be a Benson.
But according to her Mom she did when she was seven. To prove her point her Mom had even delved into the attic and searched for the box in which Sam and Freddie had placed their wedding junk. Sam had been the one to call it junk whereas her Mother had called them possessions.
The box was at the foot of her bed and Sam hadn't brought herself to open it yet but the longer it sat there the more powerful the urge to open it became.
"Ugh! Fine I'll do it I'll open it!" Sam said to her self.
She pulled herself up into a sitting position and grabbed the box. It sat on her lap for a second whith her staring at it befroe she finally tore off the lid.
Inside the small cardboard box were many an item. Items of which only flooded more of that day into her mind.
August 11th 2001
"Yay! Freddie's back!" Sam squealed as she ran to the front door to let the Benson's in.
"Sam!" Freddie yelled as she opend the door.
"Freddie!" Sam cried as she pulled him into a bear hug. "I missed you."
"Missed you to." Freddie whispered in her ear.
Marissa and Pam smiled down at their two kids as they hugged. "How was the wedding?" Pam asked as she and Marissa walked through to the kitchen.
Whilst the two adults gossiped in the kitchen, Sam and Freddie decided to go outside and play.
The sun was out and it was pretty warm out. Sam was wearing her new sun dress and she couldn't stop twirling in it because she loved the way it moved. Eventually though she got dizzy and sat down beside her friend. "So, how was the wedding?" She asked mimicking her mother.
"It was alright. My Mom says two people get married when they love each other very much."
Sam nodded then asked, "We love each other very much, so why aren't we getting married?"
"My Mom said that you have to propose to get married. She told me that the man always proposes to the lady because it's the gentleman thing to do."
Sam nodded again, "Well, what are you waiting for?"
"What do you mean?" Freddie asked confused.
"Propose to me!"
Freddie laughed, "I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because we don't have a wedding ring. Mommy said the man gets the lady a ring to show that they are gonna get married. Then they get another ring to show they are married."
Sam got up quickly, confusing Freddie. With outh a word she grabbed his hand and dragged him into the house and up to her mother's room.
"Sam, why are we in here? Isn't it rude?"
Sam snorted, "My mom comes in my room all the time, so I get to go in her room. It's fair."
"Okay. But why are we in here?"
"So you can get me a ring," Sam stated simply.
"Oh. Does your Mom have any?"
"She has loads!" Sam told him and she was not exaggerating. Pam Puckett loved to shop. Especially for jewellery.
Sam pulled out a large jewellery box from under her Mom's bed and opened it up. "Take your pick."
"Wow. Which one do you like?"
"Freddie, your the one proposing so you have to pick."
"Yeah, but I'm picking it for you so you gotta help."
"Well, what did your Mom say about wedding rings?"
"She said, engagement rings are the ones with the gems and the wedding rings are the regular kind. Aunt Jennifer showed me hers, she said they were very precious."
"Hmm... Okay, pick then."
"You help me then. Which one do you like?"
Sam picked up a ring box within the jewellery box, "I like this one. What do you think?"
"It's pretty." Freddie said taking it from her small hands and placing it in his pocket.
The ring was simple. Silver band. Cubic zirconia gem. Pam had got it at Mal-Mart and thought it was pretty but she wouldn't miss it if Sam and Freddie took it.
"Cool. That's the rings down." Sam grabbed two plain ring bands from inside the box. "Come on we're going back outside so you can propose."
Freddie nodded and followed the blonde out of the door.
They got back outside and Sam led them under the tree at the bottom of the garden.
"Why are we down here?" Freddie asked.
"Cause it's hot and I wanna be in the shade. Plus this looks more romantic."
Freddie nodded in agreement.
"So what do you say when you propose then?"
"You gotta say all this stuff about why you love them. Oh, and the man has to get down on one knee and say it," Freddie explained.
"Okay. Go on then."
"Right," Freddie said, taking the ring out of his pocket. Freddie got down on one knee in front of Sam and held the ring out to her. "Sam Puckett, I have known you forever and you are my best friend. You steal my food and can sometimes be kinda rude but usually your very nice and fun to be with. Your also really funny when you play pranks on Ms Wilson. I love you very much. And I will always love you. I loved you yesterday. I loved you today. I will love you tomorrow. I will love you always. So, Sam, will you marry me?"
Sam grinned. Those were quite possibly the nicest things she had ever heard. "Yes, I'll marry you!"
Freddie beamed and placed the ring on her finger (Of course it was huge on her so she had to be careful not to move much or it would fall off), before getting up to hug her and give her a kiss on the cheek.
"I love you," He whispered.
"I love you too," She whispered back kissing him on the cheek.
Little did they know, that Pam and Marissa had been watching the whole thing, smiling the entire time.
***** End flash back *****
The rest of that day had been filled with them planning their wedding. In the box was a picture Sam had drawn of her dress and a picture Freddie had drawn of his suit. They had drawn a picture of the cake, Sam had demanded it be huge and be ham flavoured. Freddie had compromised and said half could be ham flavoured. There was another picture of the flowers. They had agreed on purple. In the box were also two hand written invitations to both their moms.
The two mothers had come out half way through the planning and Pam had jokingly asked where they were going for their honeymoon. Whcih Marissa had carefully explained was a vacation the married couple go on after the wedding. Sam and Freddie had agreed on Disney World.
Freddie had told her at Aunt Jennifer's wedding there had been music for when she left and entered the church. Marissa told them that when the bride enters the music is the wedding march. Then to leave the music is optional. On a small piece of paper they had written - Wedding March and Happy Together (Which at the time had been Sam's favourite song). Marissa then added that they had to have a first dance at the wedding so written underneath Happy Together was Close to you which had been on the radio earlier that day.
There was a small menu which listed the food they wanted at the wedding -
Sam and Freddie's Wedding Food
* Fat Cakes
* Ham
* Fried Chicken
* Smoothies
* Inside out Burger
* Ice-cream
There was also a drawing of a church that Freddie had drawn and Sam had drawn the Hotel (She wanted it to look like the Chambrulay hotel) for the wedding party.
They had it all planned.
Sam smiled sadly at it all. She slipped the ring on her finger and a tear found it's way from its ducts and down her cheek.
One day she would find someone who loved her. Someone who wouldn't ditch her for her (female) best friend. Sam told herself this. Though it didn't stop the tears. She took off the ring and placed it carefully back in the box along with the box's other occupants. And with that she lay the box and her heart to rest in her closet away from the eyes of the world.